“This would go to the issue of whether or not he has a mental disease or defect that may or may not qualify him for the insanity defense,” Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, told CBS 2’s Derricke Dennis.

Denno said she was not surprised by the evaluation’s finding, especially in light of Aron’s last court appearance, where he was found fit to stand trial. He showed little emotion, kept his head down with his eyes darting around the courtroom.

The evaluation also revealed that Aron’s sister died while institutionalized for schizophrenia. According to court papers, the defendant said he heard voices telling him to take his own life afterward.

There was little sympathy for Aron in his Borough Park, Brooklyn neighborhood after hearing the news of the evaluation.

“If the report came out that it’s true, then I guess it’s true, but I don’t think so,” Jacob Posner said.

New York criminologist Dr. Casey Jordan expects the psychiatric evaluation to be used at trial where Aron admitted that he began to hear a voice talking to him approximately one year ago.

“This can explain why he did what he did, but it certainly won’t excuse it,” Jordan said.

But the psychiatric evaluation digs even deeper, describing Aron as “troubled” and “confused,” with a “flat” and “apathetic” mood.

“People can be competent to stand trial, but later determined to be insane,” Denno said.

Kletzky got lost while walking home alone from day camp for the first time on July 11. Prosecutors said Aron noticed the boy asking for help and kidnapped him. The young boy’s disappearance spawned a massive search that ended in Aron being tracked down at his home with some of Kletzy’s severed body parts with him.

Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, weighing in as well, dismissed the report, saying Aron has already been found fit for trial, and that his mental illness is no excuse for taking Kletzky’s life.

“To say that the guy is insane is basically to say that he’s not guilty, he’s not responsible. Well he is responsible and there’s no question about that,” Hikind said.

Aron is being held without bail and has pleaded not guilty.

How do you think this finding will affect the case against Levi Aron? Share your thoughts in the comments section…

One Comment

they say Charles Manson, Jeffry Dahmer, and the like were insane – but – they were put in jail, not mental institutions – there is a difference between being certifiable nuts and criminally insane. i’d venture to say Levy is criminally insane. if he were truly “nuts”, then it would have been discovered a long, long time ago – can’t hide what you can’t control. obviously, this guy had a more than reasonable amount of control over his life and actions – he thought about bringing him home, he thought about getting caught – he panicked. that’s not an open and close nutcase, that’s a criminal! in his police interview, he made it quite clear that he had choices – it’s more than a little odd that he’s been hearing “voices in his head” – but selectively CHOSE to listen – if the voices had that much control – he would have killed himself just like the “voices” suggested. he made the choice to kill and mutilate an innocent child – just like he made the choice NOT to kill himself. i’m thinking he’s probably a closet pedophile and jumped on an opportunity – and, when the heat was on, he CHOSE to “get rid of the evidence”. he’s far from “insane” – he’s just a sloppy, inept criminal.

Avrohom
Interesting reading all the comments. I have a mental illness diagnosed in my late 20’s and now i am in my late 40’s. I have never wanted to harm anyone but myself. I see this is a danger with Levy. I however would never think of hurting someone else. Levy’s family has a history of mental illness given his sister’s diagnosis and suicide. Mental illness also runs in my family. I believe levy was wrong to do what he did, one cannot condone what is wrong and say it is right or justified. He is quilty of doing what he did, but i feel he has a valid defense in that his capacity was diminished and that his ability to understand right from wrong was hamstrung by his mental illness or mental defect.

with all due respect, to be considered insane, you must meet the criteria of having little to no control over your actions, as well as not fully understanding the crime – on the contrary, this guy admittedly knew exactly what he was doing and that the act was wrong and reprehensible. that’s not clinically insane, that’s criminally insane. his capacity was not diminished if he fully understands the crime and the consequences.

No doubt this guy is crazy. What normal person would do such a thing.? Yes he is a criminal,, a kidnapper. and a murderer. And yes he is insane. He is criminally insane. Lock him up and throw away the key.
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Obviously this man has some kind of mental disease, it sounds to me that this person has an anti social personality disorder. The DSM explains what this mean the key aspect here is Number 7 lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.

A) There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three or more of the following:

1.failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
2.deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
3.impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;
4.irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
5.reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
6.consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
7.lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;.
In layman’s term he is a sociopath or psychopath. If this is the case he belongs in a mental institution for the rest of his life since this is no cure for this condition.

Isn’t it a little ironic that all of these psychopaths and sociopaths are not diagnosed until after they commit a horrible crime. A week before he or his family didn’t think to bring him to the doctor’s for diagnosis or treatment. There is something seriously lacking in our helath care system if psychopaths/sociopaths are not diagnosed and commited until after t they kill someone and cut them up in pieces. Our judicial system also has to change and mental illness should not excuse anyone, they should still go to jail… afterall there is no cure if they are hospitalized anyway, isn’t hat the reason whey they care committed for life?

respectfully, he does not fit this criteria – he admitted such in his police interviews. the only criteria in your outline that fits is #3, other than that – his behavior is contrary to your list – and, yes, he even showed remorse. he’s criminally insane, not clinically insane.

he was sane enough to marry, he was sane enough to hold jobs, he was sane enough to live on his own without care, he was sane enough to realize that what he did was reprehensible – always listening to the “voices in his head” – funny, though, he CHOSE not to listen when those voices told him to “kill himself”. selective insanity! no sane person would kill a child, but he’s sane enough to realize exactly what he did and why.

Too many secrets in this culture. Let’s not forget about the list of pedophiles that does not get turned over to the police or the Rabbinical Courts that decide who amongst them has to face the real justice system.

Dov won’t touch any issue casting one of their own in a bad light. Instead, he sees to it that the guy takes off his Yarmulke and distances himself from the very community he came from in the hopes that we will forget the perpretrator is an Orthodox Jew, who almost certainly victimized others outside the community. In a year or so, the kid’s death will somehow be attributed to anti Semitism.

GEE WIZZ MOMMY..I KNOW OF SO MANY PEOPLE IN OUR GOVERNMENT WHO HAVE THE SAME MENTAL PROBLEMS LIKE THIS SOCIOPATH…SO THEY DO NOT CUT YOUR FEET OFF..BUT THEY CAN AND WILL CUT YOUR HEART OUT AND ROB YOU BLIND..AND YOU CUP CAKES KNOW WHOM I AM TALKING ABOUT….DR MADOFF SHOULD HAVE A POWOW WITH ARON…THEY COULD COMPARE NOTES..ETC.

Oh he is playing the insane card..gotcha…….ok so he starts hearing voices how about getting some help? There are plenty of resources for that,kidnapping and slaughtering a child is not an excuse,defense or explanation. I hope he is killed in jail and never makes it to trial..

OK this is was coming,, Insean or not he should be kept luck and away from people for the rest of his life and forever,,If he is not normal to stand trial so luck him up at some hospital where he is belong and don’t tell us that you are going to set him free no way you cannot do it,,, if so people out there will give him the death penalthy.

Hmm, as long as he is still punished for his crime, it doesn’t matter to me whether he stands trial or not. Although, in all honesty, I understand he may indeed be insane, but I don’t think he deserves any less of a punishment for it. He should be kept away from the public from this point forward–he is a danger to our societe.

Just another excuse by society. “He has a personality disorder”. Please, society enough with the excuses.. Could it be that he is just an evil and sadistic piece of garbage? Anyone who could do what he did is insane–so why state the obvious? I am not normally a vindictive person but when it comes to kids –II think this MF should suffer–on earth. Don’t keep him in solitary confinement–let him mingle with the prison populace.

I have a problem with ‘personality disorder’ being an excuse from paying for this heinous act. If Levi is so ill, he should be put out of his misery, and save the rest of us from any future displays of his dementia. God says to stone him. I wouldn’t disagree with that sentence.

Geezus, Bobby, I, too, am frustrated with all of the unwarranted mental disorder excuses, but look at what you’re saying about those who are legitimately mentally ill. Put them out of their misery, really? I know a person in history who had that same plan for the mentally ill, and he was no fan of the Jews either.

I am here. I am still perplexed by the calls for Jewish law this and Jewish law that. We live in America and this Jewish criminal will face the American justice system regardless of what it says in some Hebrew scroll somewhere.

Dov “the Hebrew Hoaxer” Hikind is the same guy who, in the Daily News, said the locals were upset that Aron was Jewish.

Notice how he no longer wears a yarmulke. Word came down from the powers that be that he must be distanced from the Jewry.

I’m curious as to why you would rather ignore Jewish law regarding Levi? I think that Jewish law is a bit tougher on him than American, no? Would you rather spend your life in prison, or receive a lethal injection? or would being stoned drive home the point that you did something bad a bit better?

Well, Bobby, I just think it is a slippery slope to allow non secular law to dictate the outcome of one charged with crime. After all, he is charged with crimes against the secular state, i.e., “The People of the State of New York v. Levi Aron.”
I get that he and his unfortunate victim were both Jewish, and I understand the religious underpinnings of murder, but religion cannot usurp the civic responsibility of the government to faithfully administer justice without regard to whether the act offended any one specific religion or faith. He took the life of another, which affected the poor victim and his family and offended the conscious of the citizenry of this state. Thus, punishment should be doled out accordingly.
I, too, would like to see this monster suffer, but not in the name of anyone religion. Now, if a bunch of rogue Jews, want to assemble a mob, break into the jail, and kidnap this miscreant for the purposes of torture and ultimate lynching, then, by all means, go right ahead as long as no innocent people are harmed. I would cheer you on, but it mustn’t be done in the name of state sanctioned religious justice.

we must re-establish order & law. this is no reclamation project. after execution, maybe we can send his brain to a medical school and they can do research on that. nothing from my paycheck in an uncertain economy to give this loser 3 squares & a cot, help, tv, education, computer. tears and sympathy for leiby & his family only

I’m glad to know that he has a personality disorder. That helps us understand how and why he killed and mutilated a little boy. We should spend much time researching the hows and whys of this disorder after Levi’s execution. Jewish law requires that a person who murders another is to be stoned to death. I think that would be a good way for Levi to go.